While My Mage Wife Grinds, I Power Up Idly
Chapter 118: The Life-Burning Strike

Chapter 118: Chapter 118: The Life-Burning Strike

The lead-gray clouds, like solidified iron slag, pressed Rose Valley town firmly against the earth.

Looking around at the ruined streets, among shattered glazed tiles and charred walls lay soldiers’ corpses and the remnants of slain Demons.

The townsfolk huddled in the crowded Church; the metallic scent of rain stirred waves of fishy stench, which permeated the sanctuary—the odor of the debauched fiends.

But now, everyone held their breath. The oppressive weight from the sky felt like ten thousand quintals of gravity.

"Sword..."

Under the gloomy sky and above the fading sea of flowers, the Sword King hovered in midair. The despair radiating from him rivaled the Evil Power unleashed by Greater Demon Shava.

Rain soaked his long hair. He lowered his eyes to the iridescent longsword in his hand—its rainbow glow flickering like a dying candle—while his body resembled kindling set ablaze.

Yes, he was beginning to burn away his own life.

Though the world held myriad techniques, at this point he could only forsake his life to unleash his mightiest strike. Only by wagering everything could his sister stand a chance of survival.

"Crack—"

That sound like a bursting balloon was not a festival celebration but his body beginning to crumble.

The Magical Essence within him heated and spiraled out of control, tearing his muscles, rupturing his blood vessels, and piercing his skin.

Blood quickly stained him crimson, only to be washed into streams of red tassels by the intensifying downpour.

As rivulets of blood ran down his arms and into the hilt of his iridescent sword, a breathtaking, uncanny power was born.

"Human, you don’t need your blade to hack at that real ’Demon,’ yet you intend to strike me with this sword?" Greater Demon Shava stared at the Sword King. He knew what the King was doing but made no move to stop him.

"Demon, do you have any kin?" the Sword King ground out through clenched teeth. When he opened his mouth, blood streamed out uncontrollably.

The question caught Shava off guard—Demonic ethics differ from human ones. Though as a Greater Demon he understood mortal morals, in the Netherrealm his own brothers and sisters were likely lunch on some afternoon.

"You have none," the Sword King said decisively before Shava could answer, "thus, you cannot wield such a sword."

At those words, the Sword King’s sword momentum became unstoppable. The blade’s form vanished into a colossal sword of emptiness.

Immediately,

Shava chose to meet the blow head-on.

He bared two rows of neat teeth as dark red Magical Essence—like demon’s blood—coalesced before him.

At first, the orb of Magical Essence was unremarkable, just a simple mana sphere.

But as Shava waved his hand, a single droplet of distinctly fresh blood fell into the sphere, and in that instant the very atmosphere grew eerie—as if under the gaze of the evil god.

And on the surface of that energy orb, as it spun, bizarre runes flowed across it—symbols that writhed like living creatures, twisting into uncanny glyphs.

It continued to expand, and with each rotation, emitted a bone-chilling, otherworldly sound, like the wails of a hundred ghosts.

The aura of the orb quickly rose to match that of the Sword King, and the two terrifying energies clashed fiercely above Rose Valley.

"Crack—"

The iridescent longsword in the Sword King’s hand fractured; cracks spidered across its blade, and then it exploded into a storm of glittering shards.

Yet as the physical sword shattered, his invisible greatblade truly took shape.

In that moment, his bloodshot eyes were as ruthless as a guillotine.

"Blazing Soul Bloodfire Slash!"

The Sword King suddenly hoisted aloft the hilt that remained, commanding the unseen blade to strike decisively at Greater Demon Shava.

Madness shone in Shava’s goat-like eyes.

He hurled the mana sphere—now dozens of meters across—straight at the fearsome invisible sword.

...

On a distant hilltop, the Bow King of the Kingdom of Ankgarde watched in stunned silence.

"When I accepted this mission, no one said the battle would be this intense," he murmured.

"They’ve forced a Sword King to burn his very life..."

As a warrior of equal rank, the Bow King fully grasped the power behind that one strike: forsaking every chance of survival, staking past, present, and future on a single blow.

He put himself in the Sword King’s place and wondered—if that blade struck his own head, could he survive?

He couldn’t conceive of any way.

In other words, if he were that demon now, death would be certain.

...

Outside Rose Valley,

Ashu looked up at the sky. His Eye of Death had already caught sight of the Reaper’s claw mark on the Sword King, yet he still couldn’t help but watch with his unaided eyes.

For this was a Sword King igniting his life to unleash a heroic strike.

Ashu both longed to witness the devastating power of that blow and hated the thought of Greater Demon Shava perishing—after all, he still needed Shava to accomplish his own schemes.

It was a deeply conflicted feeling.

"What a shame," Ashu thought, "if the Sword King were a woman and had just realized such a technique, I’d be rich beyond measure."

...

Inside the Church in the town,

Town Mayor Seras Tully stood at the doorway, gazing up at the unfolding spectacle, so astonished he had forgotten to breathe.

His face was ashen.

Watching the scene, he couldn’t help but think: this little town, this humble mayor, these petty diseases, murders, and traps—what were they in the face of such cataclysmic power?

Under a force so overwhelming, everything else felt pale and powerless; he felt his own purpose slipping away.

Any cultivator who witnessed today’s events would either carry permanent psychological scars—never advancing another inch in cultivation—or find a new role model and strive twice as hard.

No one could remain unchanged by such display!

This ultimate power transcended all earthly teachings!

...

In the sky,

the invisible greatblade fell in the Sword King’s command, slashing toward the mana sphere hurled by Greater Demon Shava.

At the very moment the two struck, the world was reduced to nothing but black and white.

In that instant, no one could hear a sound.

Even Ashu—having activated Reaper’s Resolve and reached mid–Grand Archmage power—was struck temporarily deaf.

Then,

a blinding brilliance filled the sky, as if a second sun had descended above Rose Valley. That searing light and heat instantly roasted the corpses on the ground; even soldiers of lower cultivation were grievously burned.

Those braving exposure in the Church were punished in an instant—blinded, or incinerated outright.

"Boom—buzz—buzz—buzz—!"

The violent explosion tore straight into the clouds, ripping the heavy overcast sky apart, sweeping across the shattered earth below.

The rain from the heavens ceased in a heartbeat, and even the falling droplets vaporized on contact.

Above them appeared a circular dome of bluest blue, more radiant than any fair-weather sky.

On the ground, every wooden structure collapsed, pulverized by the shockwave until only stone walls remained.

A bottomless, chasm-like rift scarred the length of Rose Valley, cleaving the flower fields in two.

After that strike,

the Sword King’s hands were utterly destroyed—his fingers could no longer grip the hilt. The snapped hilt fell from the sky, and ten meters above the ground it crumbled to dust.

Then came his body.

He had fully expended his life energy; as a result, he turned to ash. Beginning at his feet, his form disintegrated in midair like a statue of sand.

In his dying moments, his hollow eyes gazed toward the distant peaks—that was the Imperial Capital.

"Sister... live on..."

Before he could finish, the disintegration reached his throat, robbing him of speech.

Thus ended the life of a mighty Sword King.

Across from him, the massive Greater Demon Shava likewise vanished into thin air.

"The Sword King is dead! Lord Lawrence is dead!"

Somewhere within the Imperial Capital army, a voice cracked with grief.

What followed was chaos.

"Lord Lawrence has fallen in battle! What a heroic sacrifice!"

"He did not die in vain—he slew the demon leader. His death is glorious!"

"With the demon leader dead, fiends and villains, cease your struggles and prepare to die!"

"Hmph! Lord Lawrence’s final strike has terrorized these demons!"

Yet the truth was not what the Imperial forces believed.

Listening to their shouts, Ashu turned silently and flew into Rose Valley’s ruins.

Through his Reaper’s Eye, he had detected a "newborn" life.

Its Life Force was indeed weaker than the demon Shava at his peak, but its shape and form left no doubt—Shava lived on!

He was still alive.

Ashu closed in swiftly and found the crimson-skinned, goat-headed demon amid the rubble.

"Heh heh hoho... that was truly exhilarating," Shava grinned wildly as Ashu approached.

"That was exhilarating? You nearly died back there," Ashu said.

He didn’t approve of Shava’s reckless gambit—he’d painstakingly guided Shava into the mortal realm for his power, to help build momentum that would force headquarters to recall the Twelve Demon-Hunting Nuns.

But Shava had been risking his life against the Sword King; if he’d died, all that effort would have been for nothing.

"True, I almost died. But in the end, I didn’t. I won," Shava replied, propping himself up on his now-weak arms and rising from the rubble.

He looked like a gaunt monkey, as if hollowed out from within.

"Reaper Devotee, I’m surprised to see you standing with me," Shava continued. "Whether it was that Cidi Bishop’s arrangement or your own choice, I won’t hesitate to reward you."

He reached into his chest and pulled out a blood-red orb.

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